Many kinds of artists work in groups as a matter of course, including musicians, actors and dancers. In contrast, visual artists often work independently. The advent of computer technology presents new opportunities for interaction and collaboration between visual artists.
Existing apparatus for collaborative artistic presentations include the “D.I.Y. Tagtool” system, one example of which is described in the reference entitled “D.I.Y Tagtool Mini” (http://www.tagtool.org/public_resources/Tagtool_Mini_DIY_Guide.pdf), which is hereby incorporated by reference as if set out in full. The apparatus includes a computer connected to a graphics tablet, a gamepad, a controller and a projector. The apparatus is operated by two users: an illustrator and an animator. The illustrator draws graphical objects using the controller and graphics tablet. A pushbutton on the controller is used for “releasing” the graphical objects so that the animator can then move them around using the gamepad. However, this set-up limits the artistic freedom of the users—each user is limited to one “role”, while the use of the gamepad for animation is cumbersome and lacks intuitiveness and ease of use.
Two Tagtool apparatuses can be used in combination, thereby enabling two sets of illustrators and animators to work together. For example, the two apparatuses can be connected to respective projectors with overlaying beams. Alternatively, a video mixer can be utilised to combine the output from the two apparatuses for projection by one projector, i.e. to blend graphics and frames from video using, for example, alpha blending, and chroma and luma keying. However, in these arrangements the illustrator/animator of one apparatus cannot manipulate the content created by the illustrator/animator of the other apparatus. Also, overlaying video signal from separate devices in high quality is an expensive, limited and complicated process.
Methods and systems are needed that improve the interactive and collaborative process.